Netflix Interested in ‘Terra Nova’ Season 2

Just days after Fox canceled Terra Nova, the Steven Spielberg-produced series may have found a new home for its second season on Netflix.

While the negotiations between Netflix and 20th Century TV (the studio that produces the show) are still preliminary, the studio’s attempt at selling the series to another network (or broadcast entity) may turn out to be successful after all.

If Terra Nova were to move to Netflix, the series would be free from any network expectations of ratings to help fuel advertiser’s interest. For Netflix, they’re looking more towards providing their millions of subscribers with the ability to find the series for years to come, so there’s no need for a count of initial viewers.

When Netflix premiered their first original series Lilyhammer this year, the company declined to release ratings information on the series. Here’s what Netflix COO Ted Sarandos had to say about what they’re actually interested in (which isn’t ratings):

We have over 23 million streaming members and they’ll have the opportunity to discover Lilyhammer not just yesterday, today or this week, but over the course of several years.

Of course, if Terra Nova does move to Netflix, it’s unlikely that the television’s familiar 23-episode season will follow with it. While Terra Nova only received 11 episodes in its initial order, its continuation on Fox would have resulted in a much longer episode order for its second season.

Fortunately, Terra Nova’s potential move to Netflix isn’t likely to bring with it a significant cut to the series’ budget. With Netflix already spending $3.8 million on the Kevin Spacey series House of Cards, it’s extremely possible that the digital streaming (and rental) service would be on board for the reported $4 million an episode of Terra Nova.

Additionally, with Fox footing the bill for all of the series’ visual effects, any previously created visual effects will be able to be reused without any additional financing. Of course, if Netflix wanted to shell out a few extra dollars, perhaps the series’ visual effects could be bettered for its digital debut.